Five



The Browns have lived in peace. At least they have lived in peace away from the crows that now stands outside their home flashing their cameras on every moving thing, looking for a story. If peace is external quietness and clearly surviving through the next day with elegance and pleasing sights, then we can say the Browns had done a great job for a while.

Not anymore!

Not with reporters clustered around the house. Cameramen flashing their lights and taking videos. Buses parked outside the big mansion and not even the television set can be turned on without news of the Browns popping up. 

Radio stations all have their eyes on the house, newspapers and magazines. 

Is Laurel Brown still the same? 

Brown former princess returns. 

Sebastian listens to the radio presenter ranting about the news, callers phoning to lay suggestions. One had even gone far enough to curse the police for not doing their job, another crying almost like it was her lost child. Some did not see the reason why such news would make it to community gossip and curses the Browns for using their wealth to crave attention.  

Humans. Facts are almost secluded from their thoughts. They never put themselves in shoes of others but are hasty to jump into conclusion but not Sebastian. 

Sebastian knows he is called to be a detective. He knows because he always has his facts right before taking a step. He knows to gather resources and think from all points of view. It is the reason his stepfather had hated him, the reason he loves the job and is good at catching the bad guys. It is why he is optimistic that the truth will be revealed. Twelve years Laurel was missing. She must know them somehow. They made a mistake and it will bring their downfall. 

Sebastian survives through the crowd of reporters chasing after his car. The gate rolls open as he gets close enough and soon the chants fade as he approached the white huge building standing a few meters from the gate. 

He doesn't admire the size or the numerous windows. He doesn't admire the shiny reflecting door. He's been here before. More than once. 

He sees a red Toyota (unknown model) parked just beside a Mercedes Benz Maybach Exelero. He parks his Dodge Dart just beside the Rolls Royce Sweptail.

He grabs his files and walks to the door. He rings the bell but attempts the knob and the door lazily opens. 

***

The sight of Doctor Gabriel sitting on one side of the couch is the first his eyes reaches. He wonders if doctors ever get tired of wearing white or they have grown to see themselves are earthly gods that they keep their purity by wearing white clothes.  They probably wear white pants too. 

It is not the time for jokes and even if he chuckles to himself, he immediately brushes it with a smile as Gabriel stands to exchange pleasantries. 

On the other side of the couch is Michael in a black T-shirt locked to his neck and Sophie. Sophie and Sebastian exchange a long stare before he acknowledges her, “Mrs. Brown.”

She barely acknowledges him, except for the faint smile that brushes her face and immediately replaces it with a passive look. 

Laurel sits between them and all the while, she doesn't say a word. She is not oblivious of her surrounding, he knows it. Her face shows it all. He can sense the tension in the room. The expectancy. Maybe his subconscious already foresaw this and made sure he wears nothing other than black. A black suit, black T-shirt a black trouser and a red tie. He is the devil in this case. He can sense it. They don't hate him. They don't hate the extent he will take this to get answers. Not yet. Not until they see him questioning a family that is still in shock. A family currently processing what they are going through and most especially, they must want answers. He will give it to them.  Doesn't matter how. 

A member of the family is missing. He turns the stairs wondering if Christian will run down to sit beside his now awake sister but after a few seconds he reclines more to the thought that he might be sleeping.

He turns to them again and then nods to acknowledge Laurel as she gulps, nodding back…soft but acknowledging. 

He opts to sit beside Gabriel, now facing the family with a questionary eye. 

The devil and the healer. Feels like judgment day. 

“Hi, Laurel, do you know who I am?” he leans forward after getting a reassuring nod from Gabriel. 

Laurel nods. 

“Cool. Well, Laurel, I am Detective Sebastian and I am in charge of your case. I earlier investigated your disappearance so I will just ask you a few questions and that would be all.”  He feels the need to point out his name even though she had nodded in affirmation to his earlier question. “I will not harm you. You are totally safe.” he points out again. 

Laurel opens her mouth almost to say something but opts to just nod. 

He nods in correspondence to her before asking his top question. 

“Do you remember anything from the time you were kidnapped?”

“Every detail,” she answers, her voice sounding like the newest thing in the serene ambience.

“Can you tell me what happened from the moment you were kidnapped?”

“What exactly, detective? It was twelve years of my life. I am not sure a whole day will do or even your notebook will contain half of all my ordeals.”

“That's true!” Sebastian chuckles at her cold humour. She doesn't smile, neither does anybody else. 

“Where were you taken to?”

“Somewhere near a factory or something. I only recall the sound of large trucks coming in and leaving.” 

“The people that took you. Did you see their faces?”

“Yes. Nothing distinguishes them from everyday people. One had a Spanish accent, though.”

Michael who had been staring at his daughter flinches for a second, almost like he can place his fingers on the feeling of recognition but it brushes off. 

“Is the one with the Spanish accent the leader?”

“No. He was the one in charge of me. There were others too. They were all in charge of different girls and a man with bald hair and a crappy sense of dressing. They reported to him but he was not the leader. He reports to someone else. I don't know who.”

“There were other girls?”

“Yes. Cassandra, the blonde Russian girl. Mildred, probably African American and some others. They were prepping us for something.”

“Prepping for something? Know what that is?”

“Yes. Sex.” Laurel's throat twitches at the word sex. 

“How so?” Sebastian dims his vision, sending more concentration on her lips and his hearing. 

“They teach us how to walk, what to wear, how to under. How to…how to please a man. That came later when we reached sixteen.

“Cassandra was first. We watched as the man in charge—” she presses her lips together but as she sees Sebastian does not say a word but lets her grieve.

“The man raped her. It was the first time the girls ever saw something like that. The men in charge of individual girls were asked to make sure we watched and learnt.”

The room is quiet now and Michael only places his hand gently on her daughter. Sebastian and everybody else is at the verge of crying or exploding from rage but not Laurel, saying it doesn't hurt. She lived it. 

“It was the first of many. I was scared of growing. Two years and I had seen enough nakedness and forced sex to become an addict.”

“Are you?”

Laurel cocks her brows.

“Never mind about that. Tell me about the one man with the Spanish accent.”

“Boy. He was nothing more than seventeen when I arrived.” Laurel’s gaze is unflinching and intense. It is the normality of her gaze. Blazing amber eyes that curls to the deepest part of your mind and forever holds a place. 

“He was kind – kidnapper kind, but he made sure I did everything required, just not the way the other men did.”

“How did you escape?”

“I didn't.”  The words shoot at Sebastian and for a second he almost believes his ears had just played a prank on him but Laurel continues.

“He helped me escape. I was supposed to be moved to the joint where I would work as a pleasurer but during transportation, Jeremy rescued me and shot one of their own.”

“Jeremy? That's his name?”

Laurel nods. This part has an emotional effect on her. Her amber eyes are now covered in clingy tears. 

“Where did he drop you?”

“Just a few blocks from where they had taken me.” Laurel sucks in the tears but it's obvious she cannot hold it back.

“That will be all. I am sorry again, Laurel.” Sebastian nods to the doctor to follow him and the parent accompanies their daughter back upstairs. 

***

Sebastian and Gabriel stand outside the house, the two men staring at each other with unsaid words. They are probably thinking the same thing. Sebastian knows. Gabriel knows.

“She loves him,” Gabriel says.

“Who? Jeremy?” Sebastian asks almost as though he is unsure what the other man is talking about.

“Yes. She was emotional all through the scenes with him."

“I doubt I will draw conclusions immediately but yes, I did notice the tears.”

“Not just the tears. Her body cringed and her pulse heightened every time she mentioned his name. I was there. I was checking her vitals the whole time remember?”

The two men know they will not get along for too long. One will draw conclusions from machines and basic hunches while the other will have all his facts laid out before making a move or drawing a single inference. 

Sebastian pulls open his car door when Gabriel adds, “Stockholm. Twelve years being at the man's—boy's mercy, she must have Stockholm and that…that will hinder your case, Detective Taylor.”

Sebastian, now inside his car shuts the door and pulls away from the parking lot and exits the compound. He drives in utmost quietness, somehow the words and everything clings to him. 

She has Stockholm. That will hinder your case, Detective.